Federal Officials Seize $200,000 And Counterfeit DVDs in Lakeland

Thursday

Mar 28, 2013 at 11:33 PM

Federal authorities seized about $200,000 and an estimated 10,000 counterfeit DVDs in Lakeland on Thursday while investigating an international counterfeit operation they said was based in Lakeland and China.

By SUZIE SCHOTTELKOTTETHE LEDGER

LAKELAND | Federal authorities seized about $200,000 and an estimated 10,000 counterfeit DVDs in Lakeland on Thursday while investigating an international counterfeit operation they said was based in Lakeland and China.Thursday's seizures are part of an ongoing investigation that already has netted criminal convictions against six Polk County residents, all of whom have pleaded guilty to federal charges of trafficking in counterfeit labels. They are:Alex Lee Lim, 37, of Lakeland.Robert Edmond Mattie, 27, of Winter Haven.James William Ray, 35, of Bartow.Donald Kenneth Brown Jr., 38, of Lakeland.Martin William Grenfell, 49, of Lakeland.Christopher Alexander T. Clark, 47, of Lakeland.The local investigation represented a joint effort among federal authorities and the Lakeland Police Department.No one was arrested when search warrants were served Thursday, said Carissa Cutrell, public affairs officer for the federal Homeland Security Investigations, but the investigation is continuing.Cutrell said the Lakeland search warrants were served on both homes and businesses. She said some of the counterfeit DVDs in the investigation have been sold to customers in Polk County, but she couldn't elaborate.In a news release Thursday, authorities said a China-based company, TM Wholesale, began making bulk sales of counterfeit motion picture DVDs about 2010 to buyers internationally and in the United States, including Lakeland. TM Wholesale is owned by Jian Huang, 37, who was sentenced to 51 months in federal prison last November after pleading guilty to conspiracy and trafficking in counterfeit goods.In July 2011 and April 2012, law enforcement agents seized 113,618 counterfeit DVDs from three bulk purchasers in Polk County, which weren't named in the news release. The DVDs were supplied by Huang's company, which authorities said took in an estimated $2.5 million from January 2009 to May 2012 from the sale of counterfeit DVDs.Shane Holden, deputy special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Tampa, said the theft of intellectual property, like motion picture DVDs, is not a victimless crime."When individuals pirate trademarked movies, they cost American businesses billions of dollars in revenue, which in turn, leads to the loss of American jobs," he said in the news release.Three of the six Polk County men who have been convicted on federal charges have been sentenced to federal prison, according to the press release. Lim received 51 months in prison and was ordered to pay $280,752 in restitution to the Motion Picture Association of America. Ray was sentenced to 46 months and ordered to pay the same group $261,541 and forfeit $100,005 in cash that was seized at the time of his arrest. Brown received an 18-month sentence and restitution totaling $3,000.Mattie and Grenfell each received probation, five years and three years, respectively.Clark, who will be sentenced in federal court May 3, agreed in a plea deal to forfeit $260,470 from counterfeit sales. He faces up to five years in prison.

[ Suzie Schottelkotte can be reached at suzie.schottelkotte@theledger.com or 863-533-9070. ]